


Sorry

by Tierfal



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-20
Updated: 2010-02-20
Packaged: 2017-10-07 10:41:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tierfal/pseuds/Tierfal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose decides this is a lot more fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sorry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eltea](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Eltea).



> Prompt was: "a children's game, with affectionate trash-talking." (And [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorry_\(game\)) is 'Sorry!')

It begins innocently enough.

"Sorry," he invokes distractedly, plucking her little yellow marker off the square his occupies. He places it in her home base, and she stares at him.

"Is that an undertone of _sarcasm_ I detect?" she asks.

He blinks. (She hates it when he does that; it's horrifyingly cute, and it makes her underestimate him every time.)

"There really isn't a lot of intent to this game," he remarks, motioning to the box, which is emblazoned with the insincere apology. "The only real strategy involved is switching pieces when you draw an eleven, or splitting sevens—"

She stares him down. "You're not _sorry_, Doctor. You're gloating; I know you."

The slow curl of a smile betrays his sadistic self-satisfaction. "Caught me out, Rose."

She sniffs. Two can, quite literally, play at this game, and she knows how to win.

When her next turn arrives, she pauses far longer than necessary, making sure he can see her eyes flitting back and forth between her options. She considers, and she runs one finger along her bottom lip, the tip of the other gently and meticulously caressing the rounded head of her game piece.

The Doctor is struck with a sudden need to clear his throat half a dozen times in succession.

Rose makes her move and watches him through her eyelashes as he hastily shifts one of his own pieces, pretending to be unconscious of her scrutiny.

Rose decides this is a lot more fun than playing "Sorry!" all on its own.

A few turns later, she draws a two. She lowers her eyes to examine it, making her eyelashes dip, and then purses her lips and presses the corner of the card gently into the bottom one as she gazes at the board. She tilts her head slowly, then moves a piece, sets the card down, slowly licks the entire surface of her fingertip, and draws again.

The Doctor chokes and goes into a violent coughing fit. Cheerfully, Rose reaches over the board and pounds him on the back.

"_Sorry_," she says, but she's not finished yet.

She waits, calculating, until she draws the right card, and then she comments, idly, "Oh, Doctor. Looks like I'm sliding down your chute."

Slowly, dragging the game piece across the board so that he can hear the plastic whisper, she slides it with two fingers and then delicately releases it at the end of the designated line.

The Doctor looks like one of his hearts has stopped.

Or both of them.

Or both of them and his brain.

"Maybe," he manages faintly, "I should get a glass of water."

"I think maybe you ought," Rose replies brightly.

The moment he's out of the room, she picks up the deck and rigs it thoroughly.

Needless to say, the Doctor will never pick "Sorry!" over "Candyland" again.

…"Candyland" sounds fun.


End file.
